Hate it or love it, Ford is charging full speed ahead in making its AppLink platform available to more car buyers, announcing plans to launch AppLink across three new markets — Taiwan, New Zealand, and Thailand — in 2015. The announcement follows a rollout of the technology across China, Australia, and India in 2014.
“Our AppLink technology has been enormously popular in every market where it’s been introduced, and we’re thrilled to announce that AppLink will be available to more of our customers in Asia Pacific,” said Joe Beiser, Director of Ford Connected Services, Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe.
For those not versed in The Blue Oval’s latest in-car tech wizardry, the AppLink platform is part of the Ford SYNC infotainment system. But whereas SYNC provides basic functionality such as allowing drivers to pair their mobile phones with the SYNC platform and control the radio, make and receive calls and operate more features hands-free using voice controls, AppLink takes that one step further by enabling users to control mobile apps with voice controls. Since the control of the apps takes place using voice commands, drivers are able to maintain their attention on driving the vehicle with their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, helping to alleviate or eliminate highly-dangerous distracted driving that occurs when drivers operate a vehicle while using a smartphone.
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